Years ago, I played tennis at a park surrounded by walking trails, swimming pools, and soccer fields. It was a beautiful place. One noticeable figure was an elderly, rail thin man in shorts and a backpack walking hurriedly around the trails with his two walking sticks swinging by his side. Why didn’t he swim or play tennis or disc golf, like the rest of us?

Socrates is given the credit for saying “the unexamined life is not worth living”. He said that, what, 2,000 years ago? Or more? But who does examine life?

I do. I’ve always paid attention to the world and where I fit or if I fit at all. My memory, is not eidetic, but details are noticed and often stick in my mind for no reason.

I watched The Price is Right the other morning. They have a game where a stick figure hiker climbs a stick mountain with every wrong answer by a contestant, until the stick figure falls off the top of the mountain and the player loses. That stick figure looked just like the old man walking from the past.

So what? As age has imposed its will, I’ve made adjustments: from singles tennis at a young age, to an aggressive doubles game, covering the entire court. Then to a doubles game covering only my half, and–at age 72–simply hoping to hit back any ball hit to me. At each stage the slow progression was apparent and the requisite adjustments made by design, with the knowledge someday…well…

When The Calamities hit last year, the requisite adjustment was to plan–and hope–for a life of walking. I’d always have my mobility, at least.

It was then The Price Is Right man from the past came back into focus and his reason for walking. I understood. And I am, now, at the stage of life he was, then.

One of the best things about being old and out of service is the extra time you have to examine life, to notice things. To pay attention. To learn. There is no longer any reason not to, except fear. But when I ask others if they examine their life the usual answer is “What?”, with the occasional “Why?”

None of it makes any difference, anyway. Whenever a weighty, important, monumental thought tries to invade my brain it also helps to remember this: in 150 years, everyone now alive on this planet will be dead and gone.

How’s that for examining life?